Spirited Away: Haruko's Emprise
by Nicoleee830
Summary: This is the tale of a young lady named Haruko. She found her way to the spirit world looking for adventure & more for her life then just college. Unfortunately she got more then she wanted in the end & was turned into soot by Yubaba. *before Chihiro*
1. Ch1: It's not easy working for Kamajii

*****AUTHORS NOTE***:** I do mot own anything Spirited Away except my character Haruko. Everything in_ 'Italics'_ in the story will be present time. The next chapter will explain and talk about when Haruko actually found the spirit world so past tense times will be in** bold.** Most of the story, I would say 95% will be in bold I should say since it's telling about when she first showed up and how she got turned into a soot ball :( lol but thank you for reading :) please review.

_It was crowded under the floorboards , as usual. What else should I have expected? Kamaji,i the boiler man, was snoring loudly and it was annoying me. I hated snoring so much. It's the most loud and obnoxious noise ever. Over the years I had became very grumpy and irritable. I couldn't help it. With the situation at hand, anyone would slowly succumb to their misery. Suddenly the snoring stopped. I was grateful but that had meant that Kamajii the was awake again and it was time to get to work. I headed out with the others and picked up a piece of coal. It was tiresome work we did. Day in and day out, providing steam for a bath house for spirits. It's supposed to be a place of replenishment and a place to rejuvenate, but workers find themselves anything but relaxed...seriously. _

_Shortly after Kamajii awoke from his slumber, yelled at us all to get back to work, the strangest thing occurred. Before grabbing more coal, I peeked out from one of the many openings from the floor boards and saw a human. A girl. She was flimsy looking with a white shirt that draped over her with a green stripe across the middle. Her skinny legs seemed to barely be able to support her as she walked into the boiler room. Brown bangs framed her young face as she wore her hair in a ponytail. My eyes would have widened if they weren't already wide. A human. Here. In the spirit world. It wasn't exactly unheard of but I was still shocked. A frightened look appeared on her face as she caught sight of Kamajii many arms as he grabbed some herbs from a jar next to him. I snickered but continued carrying my coal. A few others noticed her as well but continued to work diligently. The more of us worked, the sooner it seemed we'd be done for the day. Finally we were finished with the first round and we made our way back to the openings on the floor boards. I peeked out to see the girl. She was still there of course. I wonder if she was going to ask Kamajii for a job. If I could have laughed, I would have. _

_"Hello, excuse me..." She mumbled. Her voice was barely audible from where I was down below. She needed to be more firm if she wanted a job. Especially with Kamajii. _

_He basically ignored her and continued on with whatever it was he was doing. Grabbing some herbs and drinking something straight from a kettle. _

_"Haku told me to come here and ask for work, could you give me a job please?" She asked as she moved closer towards him. _

_Haku? Why would he do that? why would he even let her stay here? And couldn't he just take her to Yubaba himself? He never helped me out. I tried not to get upset over the idea._

_Just as she finished her last words, the bell , some bath tokens were placed in front of Kamajii and we were back to work with the coal. _

_"Ughh, four bath tokens at once. Come on, get to work you little runts!" He yelled. _

_She continued to beg for a job, only for him to respond that we were all the help he needed. Slightly amazed and curious by our fast ability to move the coal to the boiler , a few others bumped into her knocking them off balance and dropping their coal. Great, now we were all off pattern. She apologized and made her way over to the corner and watched as we coal seemed to be heavier then usual today as I watched as others carried a large pieces. Suddenly the girl picked up one that was apparently to heavy and carried it herself to the boiler and threw it in. _

_She couldn't do that! That was someone else's work. And heck yeah I was mad. I rolled out in from of her and dropped my coal too, hopping she'd be a sap enough to pick mine up as well. Everyone else began to do the same. She panicked. _

_"Hey, you can't just take someone else's job, if they don't work the spell wheres off." Kamajii yelled. _

_He was right for the most part. I was the only one who technically didn't have a spell on me. Not from Kamajii anyway. Mine came from Yubaba...but that's to be explained later. _

_As he yelled at us to get back to work, Lin came in brining in food asking if Kamajii was fighting again. He did frequently fight with us and over the smallest things. She threw us some star shaped candies that I must admit tasted pretty good. _

_And as expected Lin flipped out over the fact that a human was present. And unexpectedly Kamajii stood up for her, saying the girl was his granddaughter. Ha! Like that was believable. Kamajii somehow was able to convince her to take the girl to see Yubaba by offering a roasted mute. The stuff they ate here was soooo weird. As Lin and the girl left, but not before he wished her good luck, I made my way over to his side while the others ate. _

_"Huh, what is it?" _

_I stared at him agitatedly. _

_Why didn't he ever help me out when I was human? It wasn't fair. _

_As if he read my mind , since I wouldn't really speak but pronounce unusual noises, he chuckled and patted my head. _

_"She's just a young girl. You were pretty much grown." He said as he began to eat the food Lin brought. _

_I chewed on a pink star shaped candy angrily. _

_When I was human, before I Was a soot ball, things were completely different around here. Not just anyone could work in the bath house. Not just anyone could waltz right in and talk to Kamajii like not. And not just anyone could speak to Yubaba. I'd never been so scared in my life. It was a challenge and at the same time an adventure. _


	2. Ch2: Are You Human?

*****Authors Note:** **Thanks for reading the first chapter if you did. Like I said before. All of this, in **bold**, is past tense which most of the story will be in. Taking you back to when Haruko first found the Spirit World. I do not own anything Spirited Away, just my character Haruko. Happy reading :) Please review.

**It was raining unusually hard for spring time and I was not liking it. It's not that rain bothered me but it was spring. I wanted to go outside, enjoy my new neighborhood, frolic in the flowers like a new born gazelle and just appreciate nature at its best. My name is Haruko, which means 'spring time child.' It was only fitting for me to be the outdoorsy type. **

**I sighed heavily as I sat at my desk, not doing what I was supposed to be doing. A college ready math practice test. And the worst part, my extremely smart room-mate wasn't even around to help me because she was away on vacation. I was horrible at math, terrible at science and decent in other subjects. What was even the point of me going to college? I'll tell you what the point was? So that my grandparents could be happy. [1.]Obaasan and Ojiisan always lectured me on how they wanted the best for me and that I was all they had and that it would make them happy. After my mother fell ill and died, I lived with them until they both died. It's been a few years since I gradutated from High School but I decided that in return since they raised me, I'd try college like they always wanted but honestly, I wasn't so sure that it was going to work out. **

**I could see through the window in front of my desk that the rain was slowly stopped. Thank goodness. Then I could get the hell out of there. I got up from my desk and put on some boots and a hoody. Nothing was going to stop me from going out side. I rushed down the stairs, bumping into a few other people and made my way into town. I got a few glances as I walked down the street. It was obvious that I was the new girl in town and I hadn't spoken to anyone else except my room mate. I didn't exactly know the neighborhood my apartment was in but I knew that down the street and just around the block were a few corner stores with a few nice trinkets for sale and a sushi bar and some other places I wanted to check out from when I moved in a week ago. **

**As I walked down the steep hill, I spotted a little opening in the woods. Cars zoomed by me on the road as I thought about checking it out. Ahh, why not? **

**I climbed over the railing and headed down a slim dirt road. Where the heck did this place lead to? It seemed as if no one had been on the path for a good while but the trees were aligned perfectly as if they were waiting for me. Up ahead I could see a building. It was red and there was an entrance. I picked up the pace a little realizing that it wasn't exactly the smartest idea for me to be alone and walking in the woods. What if some hoodlums followed me? I held my hands up in defense as I herd a twig snap behind me. **

**The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I made my way to the red building. There was a strange small statue in front of it. It looked like a monster of some sort as it seemed to stare at me. **

**"Creeeepy." I said aloud as I walked passed it cautiously and went inside the building. The further in I got, the more it started to look like a train station. **

**That's weird. No trains ran through the town. Not even busses...This place must be old. Too bad I didn't bring my camera with me. It seemed like the perfect place to take pictures. **

**A soft breeze blew past me and I shivered. It's almost as if...the building was alive. The same feeling I had gotten while walking on the trail. Like someone or more then one person was watching me. I continued on to the other side of the building, passing a few benches. By the end of a tunnel was a grassy field. It was beautiful. I was breathtaking as I viewed my surroundings. There were some rocks and what seemed to be a pond and up ahead what seemed to be a little town or a park or something. I had to check it out. Maybe it was a place for an annul fair I had heard about. **

**"Hello?" I called out. My voice echoed. The place was completely abandoned. **

**No one was there, and yet the smell of food caught my nose. Gosh, it smelt absolutely freaking amazing. My mouth watered like a dog as I followed the scent. **

**"Mmmm." I groaned and my stomach grumbled on cue.**

**It was like I had no control over my body. The aroma of every single food I've ever enjoyed was fuming all around me. I couldn't focus and didn't even notice that it had started to get dark as I wondered around the strange place. Finally I came to a stand where a whole tabled was stretched out with food. Delicious food of every kind. My eyes widened with delight. It was only polite not to eat food that wasn't yours or cooked for you. Who it was cooked for, I did not know but one: I surely did not have enough money with me, two: it was weird that no one was around for me to pay, and three: this place seemed to be completely deserted. **

**Thankfully I was an extremely observant person. I may have been daft when it came to school work but I was observant in everything else. **

**"Man I gotta taste just a little bit!" I squeeled.**

**The food was just too much to resist. Just as I was about to reach my hand out to grab some, out of the corner of my eye i saw a figure move to my left. As I turned I saw plenty of them. They were like shadows moving. If anything I wanted to scream or yell. But maybe they couldn't see me. I was frozen in place, leaning on the table. A a shadow appeared behind the stand where the food was and slapped my hands away with a whip. **

**"Oww!" I screamed as I jolted away. I guess they could see me. Great. All I could do was run as more and more of the shawdo figures appeared. I didn't know where I was going but what I did know was that I didn't want to stick around to see what those things might do to me.**

**Finally I came to a bridge that led to what seemed like a bath house. How strange. I noticed how dark it had gotten when I saw the steam that appeared from it, traveling upward towards the sky. **

**"W-who are you? Are you,...a human?" I heard an alarming voice ask. What kind of question was that? Well I wasn't one of those shadow things, thats for sure. I raised an eye brown and turned my attention towards the voice. **

**There, further by the end of the bridge by the bathhouse was a girl carrying a bucket. She looked like she was around my age. Her hair was brown and she wore a pink uniform looking outfit with a white apron. **

**"Yes...aren't you?" I asked confused. The look on her face was scarring me. Her eyes were wide in shock and her facial expression was frozen on her face. Things were just getting more and more strange. I took a few more steps back. Where was I, who was this girl, and what were those shadow things? **


End file.
